Project Assistant/Coordinator for Open Contracting in France

BackgroundFrance is rethinking how government does public contracts. This transformation - driven by digital progress - will have an enormous impact on promoting integrity across the public sector, boosting innovation and providing opportunities to new actors in business.

France has already shown leadership in global fora by making strong commitments on increasing integrity and transparency into public procurement. This includes the May 2016 London Anti-Corruption Summit, the G20, and the Open Government Partnership. In particular, France has played a formational role in the establishment of the Contracting 5, launched at the OGP Global Summit in Paris to lead the way on open contracting at a global scale. France is the current chair of the Contracting 5, that also includes the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina.

France is also making progress in implementing open contracting at the national and regional levels. In addition to ongoing open contracting implementation, supported by a commitment in the OGP National Action Plan, the Bretagne regional government has signed an MOU with OCP to collaborate on open contracting and implementing the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS), in conjunction with partners at Etalab. This partnership recently won a government innovation award, and is currently being developed as a pilot with the potential to be scaled up to regions across France. In addition, OCP and Etalab are in early conversations to implement open contracting for the upcoming Paris Olympics in 2024.

ObjectivesThe OCP, Etalab and the Open Data Taskforce are seeking a brilliant consultant based in Paris to help advance open contracting in France. The consultant’s main responsibilities will be to:

Generate buy-in and energy for the open contracting agenda across key government agencies and stakeholder groups;

Support the implementation of open contracting at the national and local levels;

Assist in managing the Presidency of the C5;

Potentially contribute to the development of the Open Contracting for the Paris Olympics project.

ActivitiesThe consultant may support or lead the following tasks:

Help articulate a strategy to transform public contracting in France through open contracting. This will involve outreach and communication efforts with key public, private and civil society actors in France and building a broad support coalition for open contracting that can generate momentum and buy-in.

Assist in coordinating governmental task forces and teams that are integral to promoting open contracting in France. This includes supporting the task force for an interdepartmental strategy on transparency and digitalization of the French state, and the Etalab team.

Support the implementation of open contracting at the national level by advancing the publication to the Open Contracting Data Standard in France. This will include coordination with central administrations and working/coordinating with developers to enhance data completeness and quality. This may also include coordination with the Paris 2024 team.

Regularly communicate on, and where possible support, the implementation of open contracting at the regional level, especially in Bretagne.

Explore opportunities to promote the use of procurement and open contracting data in France at the national and local level. This might involve the organization of hackathons/challenges, the piloting of local monitoring and feedback loops, or the development or improvement of participatory tools that can be used by stakeholders.

Assist with managing the French presidency of the Contracting 5. This will include regular outreach and check-ins with all members, facilitating the development of shared agendas, priorities and tools, coordinated advocacy efforts, scheduling and coordination of meetings, writing reports.

Regular drafting of blogs, updates and reports.

Regular check-in calls with the OCP.

QualificationsThe required skills for this position are:

Good knowledge of public procurement (French or European law on competition and transparency) and understanding of open data.

Excellent project management and communication skills. Proactive outreach and follow up are key skills for this position.

Bilingual in English and French is a must. Excellent writing skills in both languages.

Track record of organizing interactive workshops and events.

Timeline & RemunerationInitially this is expected to be a 4 month consultancy with the possibility of a longer term extension based on performance. We estimate that about 40 days are needed over the 4 months for the above described tasks. The consultant is expected to dedicate on average 10 days of work per month to this engagement, but this might increase depending on needs and availability.